Now I'm a pretty huge fan of the Mystery Dungeon series, they were a big part of my childhood so therefore I'm irrevocably emotionally attached to the games. I do still find the gameplay fun and the music fantastic, so it's not all nostalgia-based.
So Gates to Infinity. First, let me say: un-skippable text and not being able to accept multiple missions at a time. They seem like little things, but let me tell ya it really gets in the way. There's miles and miles of preachy dialogue that scrolls at a slow pace and there's not a thing you can do. Who in their right mind thought that was a good idea? How much would it have taken to include a text speed option? And not being able to tackle multiple missions at once really slows things down. I'll have, like, 5 missions in the same dungeon and have to go to that dungeon over and over and over again. Again, who in their right mind thought of that bright idea?
And the music disappointed me quite a bit. The music itself is good and atmospheric, it's just that they play the same songs over and over. It's good music, I just loved having a different theme for every dungeon. There are more dungeons here, but every major dungeon should have unique music. They don't. No me gusta nada.
A nitpick is not being able to pick out a gender for your sidekick or yourself. I'm Axew, I named myself Tigerlily, I'm a girl, but there's no way to affirm my gender. They automatically made my partner, an Oshawott, a boy. But I'm just picky like that. I'm assuming most of you don't really have a gender preference?
Now this isn't a nitpick: regardless of gender, you can only have 5 hero options. What. The. Heck. Though I do rather like not having to take a personality test... that's at least a step in the right direction, I'd say.
Now onto gameplay: It's still that fun, classic mystery dungeon format but I wanted a change. Any puzzles are preschool-level simple, so I don't count those. I was hoping for a refreshing kind of spice added to the gameplay, but it's only been made slightly easier. I was really hoping they could do something really creative with the way you interact with the landscapes you go rescuing in, but no... just the same-old, same-old.
The story is juvenile but it's for kids so that's cool. It's a little sad, though, because I remember getting emotional as a younger player with the other games. I think it's just because I'm older... but, dang, the story just seems even more nonsensical than the last ones to me. So unfortunately I'm not motivated to play for the story anymore.
Yet another rambling complaint of mine is lack of Pokemon species. There's-what, 200?-Pokemon in the game, mostly of Unova origin. I guess that can be excused because they had to make full 3-D renders of them? I don't know much about costs and the amount of work that goes into that kind of thing, so I'm unqualified to really complain about it. :(
What I do like is the addition of a Paradise. It's challenging to make it bustling and large. I can handle repetitive gameplay, but others will find going into dungeons over and over to gather ingredients tedious. I at least thought that was a creative twist. And still, the gameplay is a little lacking but still fun. I've had a lot of complaints but it's not that bad, really... just not nearly as good as I was hoping for. It seems kind of lazy and haphazardly put together in ways. And that's my opinion, folks!